Harare- Riot police in the Zimbabwean capital Harare Monday arrested more than ninety people as a prominent women’s rights group attempted to stage a protest against poor service delivery, a spokeswoman said. Ninety-one people were rounded up outside the offices of the city council in the central business district and taken to Harare Central Police Station, said Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) coordinator Jenni Williams. None had been charged yet. At least four of the women were carrying babies, Williams said. In an earlier statement WOZA put the figure of arrests at 30. However, others including bystanders were picked up during the police swoop, Wiliams told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. “We don’t know that all of those people arrested are our people,” she said. The women had planned to stage a sit-in at Town House, but were arrested as they tried to enter the premises, she said. Conditions in towns and cities across the country have taken a sharp turn for the worse in recent years amid a worsening economic crisis and allegations of incompetence on the part of the authorities. Harare used to be known as the Sunshine City, but now residents have to contend with burst water and sewage pipes, uncollected refuse and broken streetlights, despite paying large sums for water and rates. Three years ago President Robert Mugabe’s government suspended the popular opposition mayor of Harare, Elias Mudzuri, and appointed a commission to run the affairs of the city in his place. Civic groups and even members of Mugabe’s party have called for an end to the commission’s tenure, and for fresh elections to appoint a new mayor.

From DPA, 11 September
Source: WWW.ZwNews.Com